OUCH: Russell Henley Lost 8 Strokes Because of Confusing Equipment Rule

It has been a crazy year when it comes to rule violations on the PGA TOUR, LPGA Tour, and ever professional Tour in between. And with 2019 coming close to an end, the rule violations are making one final stand.

This week, the rules issue affected Russell Henley at the Mayakoba Golf Classic. Henley was having a great round and wasn’t too far off from the lead when he finished with a 66 in round one and followed it up with a 69 in round two. To celebrate what he was hoping to be a good weekend on the course, Henley went to sign a few golf balls when his worst fear was realized.

As he was signing some balls from his bag, he noticed that some of them had a little mark on them that his caddie makes when Henley has used a ball. Then he saw that the marked ball wasn’t his usual Titleist ProV1x. That’s a problem because the prototype Titleist ProV1x put into play was not the same as the 2017 ProV1x he usually games. So if he used the prototype ball, he violated the “one ball rule.”

Embed from Getty Images

The little known rule means that a player cannot change the brand/style ball he or she is playing during a round. So it’s perfectly legal to use two different numbers of one ball, for example, a Titleist ProV1 #1 and a Titleist ProV1 #4 but the fact that Henley used a prototype that is different than his usual ProV1x created a violation of the rule.

The result? Henley ended up losing 8 strokes on the round, going from a 69 to a 77. That also meant he went from contention to missing the cut.

Even though this was a brutal blow for Henley after such a strong two rounds, he’s going to build on his momentum. “I felt like I was gaining momentum with my game,” Henley said. “I felt really confident about my chances; I don’t know about winning but I proved to myself that I can go low on Sunday at the John Deere last year. I had two rounds to get it done and I felt good about my game.”

Henley is slated to tee it up again at the RSM Classic at Sea Island next week so that will be his opportunity to keep his strong game going. And hopefully this time, there won’t be any surprise penalties that kill his momentum.

Cover Image via Instagram